network cable disconnected in laptop- what does that mean!

[dingdong05]

I've got a pc and have a router so i can have my pc and laptop online at the same time.
I decided to take my laptop out to do some work whilst ds was at soft play and I think that's where the problem started. I think it tried to find a network whilst we were there, and last time this happened it took a bit of manual finagling to sort it out when I got home again.
HOWEVER, this time nothing works and I've had a couple of warnings saying the network cable is unplugged.
Any ideas?

Do you connect to your router via a physical cable, or via wireless?

Does your laptop have a button on it to turn wireless on/off? My PackardBell/NEC has a button far right, which activates the Wireless connection.

Have you done a full reboot? - i.e. Shutdown (not hibernate or standby) then turn back on again.

What Laptop Make and Model?
What operating system - e.g. WinXP, Vista, MAC OS X

Oooo, you sound like you know what your talking about...

Its wifi and all internal.

It's set up to automatically find available networks, and last time I had to manually reconnect to my own network, so should've turned the wifi off before going out but forgot (d'oh)

I have shutdown properly, but no better.

It's an acer Aspire 5520 with the vista home premium

Try right clicking on the icon that's telling you the network cable is unplugged, this should open up the Connections window and you can then double click on the wireless connection, which will give you the option to search for a network.

I've done that, and tried doing it all manually still fails
WAAAAA!

Alas I don't know about Vista. So you will need to explore the options that gives you.

Look for a way to Enable / Disable the wireless adapter.

When you have found a way to do that, disable it. Wait a minute. Then enable it. See if Vista then detects it and sets up a connection.

is it actually preventing you connecting

mine always says a network canleb is disconnected but that is on lan and makes no odds

Most computers will say this - it shouldn't make any difference to your use of the computer - it's just telling you that you don't have a cable plugged in to the wired connection - if you're working wirelessly you won't have.

If you can't connect wirelessly, I think the network cable is a red herring.
First check your wireless switch isn't turned off - I know this sounds obvious but it can be quite easy to do if there's a physical switch.

When you follow tribpot's suggestion, can you see your normal network connection listed?

And are you on XP or Vista, or a Mac?

At the front of the laptop, is there a switch which turns Wireless Lan on and off?

usually if i cant connect then i switch the router off for a while and then back on

or it turns out to be the router is working fine but the isp is down

I agree with Rusty. The most likely thing is that the wireless adapter is not switched on.
Dig your manual out if need be, to see how to turn it on. Look around the laptop, switches can be physical slide switches, push switches, or keypad hotkeys/combination function keys.

Mine says this but thats because I am on Wireless.If I was "connected" to a network cable,it wouldn't say this.

You are all right, the cable thing was a red herring. I found the wireless on/off switch but it made no difference, and I checked the pipes by plugging the ethernet in. Everything was fine on both sides.
I kept trying switching off thing which didn't work... then I turned the laptop on yesterday and HURRAH! it connected!

Thank you guys so much for your help, and I also thank the fairies who have worked so hard to fix the problem whilst we slept
lol